Not showing up for your appointment in the tattoo/piercing industries. All the frown faces.9/13/2018 'No calls. No shows'. Its a phrase that makes every tattoo/piercing studio cringe. Here's why:
When we book an appointment, we are blocking off a portion of that day for that client to get work done. When artists are not tattooing/piercing there is no money coming in and no one is getting paid. When someone doesn't give a timely heads up or simply does not show up at all, they are wasting the artists time and there usually isn't enough time to find someone to fill that time slot on such short notice. To add to that, they are also causing other clients to have to wait longer for their appointment, for no good reason. If that person that never showed up had never made their appointment in the first place, the next person would be in sooner. Not showing up causes a lot more issues than you'd imagine. It can easily (and likely) ruin an artists day. The artist also spends time before the appointment drawing the design. Editing the design. This can happen multiple times on one design until the artist is confident they have a design that will make the client happy. That's typically at least a few hours of drawing... now for nothing. Example: Client books a 5 hour session of a bumblebee playing a harmonica while surfing in the ocean. Their time blocked is from 12pm until 5pm. The artist draws the design. Doesn't like the first draft. Re-draws the design. Doesn't think the second design will fit for the placement on the body. Artist draws it again for the third time. Likes how it turns out, for the most part. Artist then goes back in to edit the harmonica and the waves. Now the artist is super excited to show the client the design and get that rad bumblebee playing that rad harmonica on that client. A lot of drawing and preparation has already gone into this tattoo. Its not even the appointment date yet. 12:00 on the appointment date shows up. No client. 12:10 on the clock. No client. 12:30. No client. The client doesn't show up. Now the artist has no income coming in for a minimum of 5 of their 8 hour work day. That's a huge financial blow. And even when that client doesn't show up, the artist still has bills to pay. The studio still needs to pay the bills to keep the doors open. The studio and artist are then left with a small window of time to attempt getting someone else in on extremely short notice. A lot of time gets wasted and a lot of tattoo time goes out the window, while trying to get someone to fill that spot on the day of. Understanding deposits: Almost all studios will require a deposit. The deposit is there to make people committed to their appointment/time slot. Our deposit starts at 50.00 for most tattoos. This deposit is there so the client has "something on the line." Imagine no deposit being in place. The potential clients appointment date shows up and they decide, "Eh, I'm tired. I'm not going." Now imagine the 50.00 deposit in place. "Eh, I'm tired. But I did commit that 50.00 deposit and I would rather not waste that money. I'll go get that rad harmonica playing bumblebee." When someone still doesn't show even with a deposit in place, the artist and studio will at least still makes a little bit of money. But that "little bit" isn't enough to pay bills and make up for the full time that was blocked off for the tattoo. Please keep all this in mind. We want to tattoo you. We want to pierce you. WE LOOK FORWARD TO IT. But if you're not serious about it, please just wait until you are serious about it. We all have bills to pay. We are all trying to make a living. Tyler Hamline
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Claire's, Walmart, aunt Paula's kitchen with her old 'piercing kit' she needs to go grab from the basement... I don't think I can cringe enough. I'll just jump into it.
Let's start with training/apprenticeships. Places like the ones I've listed are performing 'piercings' by people who have no actual training. At all. No training on how to PROPERLY perform ANY piercings. No bloodborne pathogen training. No first aid training. No contamination control training. They literally start at work one day and pick up a (horrid) piercing gun and have at it. Which will transition me into the next aspect. The evil piercing gun. There is no way to properly sterilize those things. They are made of plastic and cannot be autoclaved and sterilized. Wiping them down with rubbing alcohol is what they do. Rubbing alcohol is not even close to any form of sterilization. Please don't think it's anywhere near it. Those guns LITERALLY force the blunt ear stud through the tissue. It's brutal. (Do you want your kiddo going thru extra trauma? I don't imagine so). So now we are piercing violently by someone with no training with something that cannot be properly sterilized. See where I'm going with this? Next let's talk about the make-up of the jewelry. They use generic terms like "surgical steel" which is what tools are made out of and trick people into thinking it's something better because "well it says surgical right on it". Surgical sucks. What you are looking for is IMPLANT GRADE stainless steel/titanium/niobium and solid gold. Would you want your kid (or yourself or loved one) getting decorated with a made-up loose term like "surgical steel" or would you rather have them get pierced with the same metal used in PACEMAKERS? Pacemakers!!! And as far as age is concerned, please let your child decide if they want them or not. I know it sounds fun to decorate your kid, but before they can decide, it's only fun for you, at their expense. Your kid is a real life human being too and their vote on this subject is the one that matters. Don't force them to go thru it if they don't want it. People who use the statement "I got pierced at Claire's and it healed up", you're looking at it wrong. You got it done there and it healed up 'IN SPITE OF' those issues. I hope this got thru to some of you. Even if it changed the mind of 1 person, it was worth the 7 minutes it took for me to write this. Thank you for taking the time to read this . Please take your children to a REPUTABLE studio where they can get decorated in a safe and friendly environment with jewelry that is great inside the tissue. And be sure to check out portfolios and find out about their technique, how they sterilize and the quality of jewelry they offer. Not all studios carry the same high standards. You and your loved ones DESERVE high quality and high quality only. Sincerely, Tyler Hamline |
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